.... the GOP presidential nominee’s advisers and the Republican National Committee are looking to give Romney more routes to reaching the 270 Electoral College votes needed for victory.
They are weighing whether to shift resources from North Carolina, where Republicans express confidence of winning, into states long considered safe territory for President Barack Obama, including Wisconsin, Michigan and Pennsylvania.
There's both good and bad news here for Romney.
The good news for Romney: There was a time and place (late spring/early summer) when the Obama campaign thought it might be able to send Romney packing with an upset in North Carolina.
The campaign held its convention there, had strong organization, and had been running competitively in polls for most the year.
But even with those advantages, most politicos knew that Romney would win the state and that both candidates were dumping resources there on a "just-in-case" basis -- Romney, "just in case" Obama made a surge; Obama "just in case" there was an upset for the taking.
But the Democratic convention failed to move the state and NC remained slightly pro-Romney even as the president jumped in polls across the country. At that point, it seemed very unlikely Obama would win. Yet both campaigns continued to dump resources into the state "just in case."
That seems to be changing, though, as the campaign enters its final stage. Yesterday, David Chalian noted that Obama hasn't even visited the state since the convention, which makes NC the only swing state, post-convention, he hasn't stepped foot in.
And in an election where Romney seems to be trending in Florida, Colorado, and even Virginia, North Carolina seems all the more a fantasy for Obama.
So it's looking more and more likely that North Carolina and her 15 electoral votes are Romney's. That's good news for Mitt.
The bad news for Romney: This state was closer than it should have been for a long time, and Obama forced Romney into defense in a state Mitt should have nailed down long ago.
When the general election began, both candidates dumped quite a few resources into the state, but that's to be expected in the opening stages of a campaign. The expectation, though, was always that Romney would seal things up soon enough and effectively put it away.
But the race there remained stubbornly close, and soon became a drain Romney didn't think he'd have to deal with for so long.
If, indeed, Romney is considering shifting resources from NC to states with more opportunities, then it's a very good sign for him. But it comes later than the campaign had hoped.
Imagine if Romney had been able to play in Wisconsin and Michigan over summer instead of North Carolina?
